Back in the day — and by that I mean the 15th century — printing on paper was in its infancy in Europe, since the process of papermaking had just made its way there from China. Early prints were limited by the size of single sheets of paper and the size of a standard press, but by the 16th century, technological advances and artistic ambitions had led to the creation of large-format prints rivaling the most impressive Renaissance paintings and tapestries. Opening at Wellesley’s Davis Museum on March 19, “GRAND SCALE: MONUMENTAL PRINTS IN THE AGE OF DÜRER AND TITIAN” offers nearly 50 rarely seen, BIG 16th-century woodcuts, engravings, and etchings, among them Albrecht Dürer’s The Triumphal Arch of Maximilian I, which was completed in 1515 and measures over 11 feet in height. Also opening on March 19 at the Davis Museum, “JEM SOUTHAM: UPTON PYNE” presents large-format photographs chronicling the evolution of a small pond near Southam’s home in Cornwall that were taken during the artist’s regular walks to the pond between 1996 and 2001. The pond came into being as a result of industrial waste on the site of a former mine, and Southam documents the transformations caused by time and by humans.

“The New Rationalists” at Proof Gallery, 516 East Second St, South Boston | March 15–April 26 | 508.963.9102

Photographs of fried eggs, Velveeta on pumpernickel, and lint may seem far removed from complex mathematical patterns, but artist Kevin Van Aelst’s images, using humble foods and household stuff as actors, help us visualize such configurations as Sierpinski’s gasket and the Cantor set and perhaps incline us to see nature’s designs in the world around us. Van Aelst’s photographs are on view in “ART AND MATH,” which opens at Axiom Gallery on March 14, together with work by Bathsheba Grossman, J. Michael James, and Keith Peters.

Nature’s bemusing designs are perhaps nowhere more evident than in marine invertebrates — that is, jellyfish, squid, sea slugs, and the like. In the mid 19th century, years before Harvard commissioned them to create the famed “Glass Flowers,” father-and-son artists Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka created lifelike glass replicas of soft-bodied sea creatures for universities and museums around the world. Sixty examples of their work are on view in “SEA CREATURES IN GLASS,” which opens at Harvard’s Museum of Natural History on March 20.

“Whip-smart abstractions” by New York painters Meghan Calhoun and Lauren Portada are on view in “THE NEW RATIONALISTS,” which opens at Proof Gallery on March 15, and I can only guess that these artists, working with geometric forms and painterly touches, aim to bring some semblance of order to that ineluctable tendency of abstraction, and of paint, to get sensual.

Bookworms “Under Cover” is one of those lucid, edifying shows the Harvard museums excel at.

Greatest hits The RISD Museum continues its top to bottom renovation and expansion.

Lasting impressions The Renaissance of the 15th and 16th centuries didn't become known as the European age of rebirth for nothing.

Retro for fall Leaves are turning, roads aren't crowded; it's time to look ahead for interest in the fall art season.

Magpie and copyist If you were going to recount the evolution of hippie guy fashion, you might say that what began with psychedelic ruffled shirts and corduroy pants in 1968 has in late middle age split into two streams: collarless white button-down shirts, usually buttoned right up to the neck and worn with a black vest, and Hawaiian shirts.

Wild about Harry What I want to do — what most photographers want to do — is write Harry Callahan a love letter. At the very least, he deserves an elaborate thank-you note for innovating or validating 80 percent of the successful photographs we ever took.

Subject bias "Objects of Wonder" is a mixed bag of a show, which is what it sets out to be.

Fear and loathing In the first two pages of the article, Miliard managed to capture the quintessence of Hunter S. Thompson’s lifeblood.

Vandal-in-chief Shepard Fairey and his show "Supply and Demand" arrive at the Institute of Contemporary Art like a guerrilla general emerging from the jungle after his forces have taken the capital.

Growing Maine art Long ago an art critic of my acquaintance remarked that New York was a border town to Europe, and until fairly recently that was true. Artistic ideas would be born in Europe, often France, and migrate slowly across the Atlantic and take root.

THE NATURE OF THE BEAST | September 10, 2008 In the world of graphic novelist Kevin Hooyman, whose show opens at Proof Gallery on September 13, packed line drawings take you deep into strange and fantastical scenes.

I AM I SAID | September 03, 2008 Tufts University Art Gallery presents “Empire And Its Discontents,” which opens September 15 with work by 11 artists tied to previously colonized regions in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia.